Prerequisites: RCC*. Topics include the nature and purpose of planning and zoning; comparison with other systems of land use control; constitutional bases and limitations; zoning legislation and regulations; urban redevelopment; eminent domain and takings. The course provides an option to satisfy the upper level writing requirement.

Prerequisites: RCC*. The seminar will explore the uneasy relationships between republicanism, private power, and the “rule of law.” Students will read passages from a political philosopher/economist, a case/treaty provision/statute/or regulation, and a current example of the underlying issue, all of which will form the basis for a discussion of the issues raised in context and will explore how the works of some of the most influential moral and political philosophers (ranging from Aristotle and Marx to Ayn Rand) reveal the basic policies and competing ideologies that influence our legal institutions. By seeing the issues fought over for thousands of years—replay themselves in the common law, constitutional law, trade treaties, labor law, corporate law, tax law, and spending allocations, the students would have a more integrated, informed view of the political economy. Students will complete a substantial research paper for the course. Satisfies the upper level writing requirement.

Prerequisites: RCC*. The class covers a variety of topics in legal literature and film. We will look at examples of law in both literature and film in order to consider a number of questions about the relationship between law and justice, the creation of rule regimes, and the role of courts and trials in a social system. Other issues which may arise in the course of these discussions are race/class/gender and the law, legal ethics, legal education, the adversarial system, the relationship between law and popular culture. Satisfies the perspective elective requirement.

Prerequisites: RCC*. This is a course in the substantive, procedural, professionally responsible, and practical aspects of operating a small to medium size law office. The course is designed to present students with the knowledge and skills to operate a small law practice properly and responsibly. Some of the topics to be covered include lawyer associations (partnership law, professional corporations, limited liability companies), retainers and other service contracts, fees, marketing and advertising, trust accounts, financial management, law office technology, and some basics on renting, staffing, and equipping an office. Satisfies skills course requirement.

Prerequisites: RCC*; approval of Law Review Editorial Board. Writing and editing for publication in the Cleveland State Law Review. Course credit for participation as a member of the Law Review Board of Editors for two semesters. Graded on a Pass/Fail basis.

Prerequisites: RCC*; approval of Law Review Editorial Board. Service as editor-in-chief of the Cleveland State Law Review entitles a student to one credit in addition to the credit earned in Law Review (LAW 810).

Prerequisites: RCC*. Prerequisites: RCC*. This course will focus on a variety of legal issues that arise in the context of education and may include sections on historical perspectives; the structure of educational systems in the U.S.; employment issues with respect to administrators, teachers, non-teaching staff and unions and collective bargaining; issues affecting students, including desegregation, Title IX, compulsory attendance, discipline, curriculum and textbooks, measuring success, special education, religion and the schools, search and seizure in schools, freedom of expression, and student privacy; and school funding. Satisfies the upper level writing requirement.

Prerequisites: RCC*. This course will provide an introduction to legal developments in housing and community development. Selected contemporary policies, programs and issues at the federal, state and local levels will be examined. These topics include: landlord-tenant relations, homelessness, the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, public housing, displacement (public and private), regulation of condominium conversions, municipal exaction of housing from commercial developers, housing courts and code enforcement, discrimination, and exclusionary zoning. The role of lawyers and courts in formulating and implementing housing policy will be analyzed. This course is cross-listed as UST 554 by the College of Urban Affairs.

Prerequisites: RCC*. This course is designed to serve as a transition from law school to law practice. The course focuses on drafting of numerous non-analytic documents used in law practice such as wills, contracts, and pleadings. The course provides the student with process for drafting, and the requisite skill to master the process. Concurrently, the course considers the audience and goals of each specific document. The course brings the student back to and reinforces the principles of good writing. Lastly, the course will help develop the lawyerly skill of fact–gathering, which is a prerequisite to effective legal drafting of any type of document. The course is intrinsically designed to serve as excellent preparation for the Bar Exam section on performance, which focuses on document drafting-the Multistate Performance Exam-MPT. Satisfactory completion of the course will satisfy the third semester of legal writing requirement and the skills course requirement.

Prerequisites: RCC*. Sections of this course will focus on a variety of areas including, but not limited to, the arts, business transactions, family law, and intellectual property. Writing assignments will be varied. Students should consult the New and Revised Courses information for the term in which the course is offered for information on the focus of the course for that term. Satisfactory completion of this course will satisfy the third semester of legal writing requirement and the skills course requirement.

Prerequisites: RCC*. This course focuses on issues of legal ethics and professionalism that arise in the practice of law. Instructors use either the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct or the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct as a starting point for discussing these issues. Specific topics covered vary by professor but generally include competency, confidentiality and attorney-client privilege, conflicts of interest, fees, advertising and solicitation of clients, communicating with clients, ethical constraints in civil and criminal litigation, the attorney disciplinary system, and potential civil and criminal liability. Professionalism issues cover conduct that may not be required or prohibited by the Rules of Professional Conduct but are directly related to the values and traditions of a learned profession. Required for graduation.

Note: Students frequently take Legal Profession before taking the MPRE. The course is not, however, designed to fully prepare students for the MPRE exam. Additional information about the MPRE, including Study Guides and a practice exam, is available on the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ website, http://www.ncbex.org/multistate-tests/mpre/

Prerequisites: RCC*. This course will examine legal and policy perspectives on how to deter, prevent and respond to acts of terrorism both domestically and abroad. Students will study and explore both black letter law (e.g., the Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) as well as policy debates (e.g., balancing national security against personal liberties) connected with the problem of terrorism. Topics will include: (1) defining terrorism and identifying who commits acts of terrorism; (2) the Patriot Act and other American legal responses to September 11; (3) the efficacy of international laws and treaties on the “war on terror”; (4) interrogation and torture techniques; (5) detainees, tribunals and the problem of where t o hold and try terrorists; (6) wiretapping, surveillance and prevention measures and privacy interests; (7) challenges related to criminal prosecution of terrorists in the United States courts; and (8) compensation to victims of terrorism.

Prerequisites: RCC*. The primary emphasis of this course is advanced legal writing and research within the litigation context. The course structure and substantive material will parallel the litigation process from the receipt of a complaint in a factually and legally complex civil case through the motion for summary judgment. Students will gain a refined understanding of the organizational, analytical, creative and critical research and writing experience beginning with the initial exposure to the legal causes of action and culminating with the dispositive motion and response thereto. Course may be offered with a particular substantive focus (e.g., Family Law). Course requirements are fulfilled by research and writing assignments and class participation. There will be no final examination. Satisfies third semester of legal writing and skills course requirements.

A two-semester course with instructional components directed at writing, research and advocacy skills. Students will concentrate on writing and case analysis and will be introduced to basic bibliographic materials and research techniques. Legal research and writing exercises are designed to introduce basic legal writing forms. Beginning Fall 2009, a grade is entered on the student’s transcript for each semester of the course. Required for graduation.

Most of what we today term "law" is made, not in common law courts, but by legislatures (e.g., Congress) enacting legislation, and regulatory agencies (e.g., the Environmental Protection Agency) adopting regulations and standards to implement that legislation. Legislation and the Regulatory State introduces students to the institutions and procedures used by the modern administrative state to make law. It examines how Congress and agencies work together to make law, and then examines how the agencies and the courts work together to apply them. The course also examines the justifications for modern regulation, the structure of the modern administrative state, the incentives that influence the behavior of the various actors, and the legal rules that help to structure the relationships among Congress, the agencies, and the courts, including the role of courts in interpreting statues and reviewing administrative actions when they are challenged by parties affected by those regulations. Required for graduation.

Prerequisites: RCC*. This course will explore such topics as the relationship between state government
and local governments, home rule powers, open meeting and open records laws, ethical considerations,
tort liability and public finance. There is no casebook for this course unless students are otherwise notified.
Students will instead read Ohio Supreme Court cases illustrative of the issues.